Firaxis has officially unveiled XCOM: Chimera Squad, a surprise new edition in the XCOM franchise which launches next week.
XCOM: Chimera Squad is set five years after the events of XCOM 2 and was revealed by publisher 2K Games with several trailers on the official XCOM YouTube account. Check out the reveal trailer below.
The game, however, isn’t a direct sequel to XCOM 2. Instead, it’ll be a standalone spin-off in the series which follows a team of 11 agents as they explore a location called City 31. Chimera Squad also features a fresh gameplay system called “Interleaved Turns”, that places “individual agents and enemies into an alternating turn order”.
Outside of combat, the title also adds a new layer of strategy where players will be tasked with managing “operations of a high-tech HQ, where they must prioritise competing tasks, investigations and agent assignments in the face of a ticking clock”.
Other new features include “Re-Envisioned Tactical Combat” and “Breach Mode”. For more details on the new additions, check out the gameplay overview below.
“Gameplay like Breach Mode, interleaved turn order and the introduction of agents as fully fleshed-out characters will revolutionize how the game plays while still retaining the combat experience that makes the XCOM series so loved by gaming communities around the world,” Mark Nauta, lead designer at Firaxis Games, said in a press statement.
Chimera Squad came about after the release of XCOM 2 and the War Of The Chosen expansion, as developer Firaxis “felt there were exciting gameplay opportunities that had yet to be discovered,” a studio spokesperson told PC Gamer.
“XCOM: Chimera Squad features multiple bold new changes to the traditional XCOM formula […] This specific vision for XCOM made more sense as a standalone title as opposed to a direct sequel.”
XCOM: Chimera Squad will be released for PC on April 24 with a “special limited-time introductory price of US$9.99” until May 1. Firaxis Games has also announced that there are “no current plans” to port the game to consoles.